Closure
by Eulene
Summary: An attempt to draw an end to the series. The story takes place three years after Kudo Shinichi was reduced to Edogawa Conan who now, on the verge of becoming a teenager, can no longer hide the growing resemblance to the famous high school detective.
1. Chapter 1

**Closure**

_Eulene_

Disclaimer: All characters belong to Gosho Aoyama.

Chapter 1

* * *

_"So dawn goes down to day.  
Nothing gold can stay."  
- Robert Frost_

* * *

"You brat! What are you doing? Playing with my shaver? This is not a toy for kids to play with!" Kogoro thundered as he grabbed the shaver away from the boy. There was an awkward little pause as the boy stood unusually silent for a moment, at a complete loss for an appropriate comeback.

Kogoro leaned forward, peering closely at the face of Conan Edogawa. "What… is that a stubble I see?" The famed detective guffawed, "My my, you're really growing up aren't you? Let me teach you the ways of a man! First and foremost… A true man always keeps a mustache. It's charming to the ladies you see."

"Dad! You have a call!"

"I'm coming!"

And with that, the boy was left alone in the bathroom, free to attend to the newfound concerns that came with growing up.

* * *

"Professor Agasa! Are you home?" The youth tapped twice on the door before it abruptly swung open.

"No he's not," was as much of a greeting he could ever get out of her.

"Haibara."

Conan followed her down into the basement where she kept her experiments confined to. "So how's it going today?"

"Not much progress with the development of the drug unfortunately." A tense silence followed her curt reply before she knocked over a bottle of pills.

Conan placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. "What's wrong, Haibara?"

"We let this dragged on for three years! Three long damn years! We won't need a cure to revert us back to our normal form if this drags on any further!" She pulled him to a mirror. She did not need to continue. He knew what he saw in there. Already, he was losing the childish roundness to his face that was sharpening into the angular jaw of Kudo Shinichi who would have been twenty-three this year. He had added on to his web of lies. Shinichi nii-san was now furthering his studies in America, where he would graduate with a degree in criminology.

All the lies had been part of his elaborate plan to buy time so he may keep everything and everyone he deemed precious to him, safe while he tracked down the Black Organization. Yet at the end of the day, time would betray him and everything he tried to protect to his pursuers.

"Even so, we have miraculously cheated death for three years. We are going to find a way out of this. We are going to regain our bodies someday. And when that someday comes, we will be able to walk freely down the streets, unafraid of any danger because by then, every single member of the Black Organization would be in jail." She looked away.

"Look at me Haibara. We can do this!"

She shoved Conan aside and curled up in a corner, hugging her legs close to herself. "We can't. Not when he's next door. He knows and he's biding his time before he betrays us to the Organization…"

"Who? Okiya Subaru?" There was no reply to this.

"Is that why all the curtains in the house have been drawn?"

"Professor Agasa is out of town today..."

He strode over to her and grabbed her hand, pulling her up to her feet and out of the house. "You need to get back on your feet if we are going to figure a way out of this. But first of all, you need some fresh air."

* * *

It was almost time when the sun would set. She was not a person fond of the crowded walkways of Tokyo and so he had brought her out to the quiet path by the river that he and Ran often took on their way back from school some years ago. It was a familiar piece of scenery that seemed immune to time. The sun would set in moments and the brilliant orange the sky had been dyed with would eventually blend in with the original blueness of the sky to give a soothing mauve.

"I shouldn't have acted the way I did earlier."

He glanced over at her, "What is this? An apology?"

She rolled her eyes at him, "It's the closest the one that you will ever get out of me."

He laughed a little. "Thank you Haibara."

* * *

Dusk saw him seated alone by the riverbank. Ayumi had rung Ai up and invited her over for dinner. The unlikely pair had forged a deep friendship over the three years and it was evident that Ai needed some time away from everything before it tore her apart from inside.

He idly picked up a pebble and tossed it into the river. It skipped a few times, marring the glassy surface with ripples before sinking to the bottom with a little "plop".

"_I'll catch up with you right away!" _

Those had been his last words to her before he was drugged and shrunken into the small frame of Edogawa Conan. "right away" had taken a little more than three years.

"Plop!" was the sad sounding sinking of the second pebble into the depths.

It was not that the three years had been futile. They had made some progress and gotten some leads on the Black Organization. But even so…

"Plop!" was the angry cry of the third pebble that echoed his frustrations.

He took off the thick framed glasses he wore to complete his disguise and bent over the trembling surface of the river. No doubt, they would find out soon if nothing was done.

A deep sigh escaped him before he could help it. The last lights of the sun were already receding into the corner behind the hills from a distance. He picked up his glasses and got ready to leave when he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulders.

"Shinichi!"

* * *

A/N: Please leave a review! Gosh it's been so long since I've last laid any attempt at writing anything fictional and it's difficult to start again. Any criticism, thoughts or comments are welcome! To be honest, I don't really know where exactly this story will be headed to. Hmm… this was born out of a frustrated moment after I had finished my most recent DC manga and realized that Gosho Aoyama had once again misled me on to think that the story would finally be on track to a decent ending where the Black Organization would get busted and Ran and Shinichi would have a "happily ever after" ending. Ah! Anyways it seems like it's never gonna end and so I decided to pen down how I think the series would end. How would you like to see it end?


	2. Chapter 2

**Closure**

_Eulene_

Disclaimer: All characters belong to Gosho Aoyama.

Chapter 2

* * *

"_As amid the hectic music and cocktail talk  
She hears the caustic ticking of the clock."  
- Sylvia Plath, Cinderella  
_

* * *

There it was again, the voice that drew out hesitatingly, "Shin…ichi?"

An all too familiar voice… an all too familiar name… in an all too familiar place…

The familiarity of it all and how natural the scene would have been, had it been any other day in his ordinary life before the fateful incident at the theme park, caught him off guard as he turned around.

"Ran…?" he murmured in a barely audible tone tainted with a tinge of surprise. He should have known it was her. She stumbled a few steps as she began running down the little slope towards him. He made no attempt to move, nor any attempt to lie about his response to the name that should not have been his.

"You really were just pretending to be Conan all along weren't you, Shinichi?"

She could not have been more than one meter away from him. But the distance seemed that laid between them seemed to stretch on, transcending all possible physical measurements. He remained silent. It was a pivotal instant; any words that escaped his mouth right then would change it all, be it to continue that façade or to reduce the efforts of those who knew, to protect those who didn't…and who were worth protecting.

She took a step closer, reducing the space that separated them, repeating with a tone that grew in urgency, "Weren't you?"

He fumbled to place the glasses that were characteristic of Edogawa Conan on. "Ah! Ran-"

She pulled him close to her, cutting him off halfway. "-nee-chan? Are you going to keep calling me that?"

His heartbeat was a distant pounding in the background. The sky was already beginning its descent into the depths of blue as a slim sliver of a moon began its ascent, freezing the moment with its silver touch. Words came to mind, but none seemed appropriate to break the stillness and his tongue rolled about uselessly in his mouth, leaving him muted. Instead, he reached out to her, his left hand reaching for her right, and his right hand, reaching for her dark hair.

He tugged. And it was her turn to be caught surprised as she sprang back a second too late. The dark-haired wig tumbled to the ground into a limp messy pile, revealing glossy pale blonde locks. It did not hurt that he had her dominant right hand. Her years of training as a professional killer had paid off as she deftly reached across the distance with the blade in her left hand. Thankful for his fast reflexes, he released her hand as he dodged, his spectacles falling off in the process, revealing angry eyes that glinted dangerously in the dark.

"Vermouth."

She ripped off the rest of her disguise. "Show's over I guess… You fell for it didn't you, Shinichi?"

Ignoring her question, but instead responding with yet another, he asked, "What is your purpose here?"

"Ah how cold you are… Makes me regret a little in my decision…" she drawled.

"Wha-"

She cut him off in mid-speech, "To take the wolves down, you have to strike at the moment just before the moon is full. They are most vulnerable just before the full transformation."

This woman was indeed an actress at heart, what with her dramatic flair and her love for such mysterious lines. In spite of the current circumstances, he couldn't help but to let loose a grin as he was reminded of his mother.

"Are you telling me when it is the best time to strike?"

She merely smiled at him, prompting him to ask again, "Whose side are you on then?"

"A secret makes a woman, woman."

Tossing a gun towards him as she turned to leave, she called out, "All the best, Silver Bullet-kun."

* * *

From the unsealed envelope spilled a single photograph of a ruby red gem. His fingers trembled as he picked it up, turning it over to read the single word scrawled on it.

'Pandora.'

The butler's thick eyebrows drew close in a tight frown, "Young Master Kaitou…"

In a low and dangerous tone, the youth who bore the legacy of the legendary thief, Kaitou Kid, spoke, "Where did you get this from?"

Hesitantly the butler asked, "Are you certain you want to this, Young Master?"

"Pandora…The gem my father paid his life for yet never obtained."

The gaze of the usually composed Kid who was trained to keep a poker face under all circumstances, hardened as he crushed the photograph.

"I have to do this."

* * *

She rubbed her eyes again, uncertain if her eyes were deceiving her. She had been staring at the computer screen for the whole day and certainly, it would not be impossible if information on the screen was a figment her fatigued mind and eyes had conjured up. She reached for her eye drops and blinked hard again.

"Mouri-san?"

She shook her head and looked up from her desk in the corner, towards the direction of the speaker. The office was near empty at this hour and apart from two other workers, there was only her boss.

"Yes, Sir?"

"Are you all right? You look really tired. Why don't you retire for the day and continue with the accounts tomorrow?"

She laughed nervously and nodded, returning her attention back to the screen. The figures remained unchanged.

"Sonoko?"

"Ran! Yes? What's up?"

"I'm sorry, I know it's a little late but… Are you free to meet me for dinner right now?"

"Of course! Is something wrong though? Your tone…"

"I'll tell you over dinner…"

* * *

The tingling fragrance of spices flavored the air that wafted to her nose as Ai unlocked the door. "Curry for dinner, Professor Agasa?"

His hearty voice came in response from the direction of the kitchen, "You're home, Ai-kun! Come have your dinner while the curry's warm!"

She smiled to herself, feeling her mood lightening as she headed towards the kitchen, calling out as she did so, "Weren't you out of town for a conference? Your old car must have stalled again huh… or did you forget to bring something? You really are getting senile Prof-"

It was an unexpected figure that stood over the steaming pot of curry with his back towards her. He was tall and lean, of an outline that was totally unlike the tubby round Professor. Turning around, he waved as his thin lips curved up into a smile.

"This sure is one cool device. Bet it came in handy many times huh…" he smirked, gesturing to the voice-changing bowtie he had around his collar.

"You..."

"Good to see you Ai-kun!" He took off the bowtie, placing it gently by the side of the stove.

"Care to develop a cure for this old man's senile condition, Sherry?"

Her blood ran cold.

* * *

* * *

A/N: And so the innocence of the mundane (well if the regular discovery of dead bodies as little Conan may be considered mundane) everyday life is broken as everyone starts to get closer to the truth. Hope this chapter was satisfactory! Thank you for your reviews! I must apologize for the long wait as I have been very busy with school. Hope you enjoyed this! Take a guess at who it was that Ai had met :) Reviews on your comments or thoughts about the story, suggestions as to how I can improve, would all be greatly appreciated! Thanks!


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